Refugee challenges underscore need to fight ISIS

Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship John McCallum responds to a question during Question Period in the House of Commons Tuesday, January 26, 2016 in Ottawa. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld)

Sun Media reported Wednesday a Toronto hotel is booting out long-term tenants to make way for Syrian refugees. The CBC reported this week that "85 government-sponsored refugees say they're not getting much help, and would rather go back to their refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon."

Canada's major cities have asked the feds to slow down the flow of arrivals.

We've clearly got a situation -- hardly anybody is happy with how events are unfolding.

Luckily, Canada isn't dealing with the more extreme refugee challenges Europe faces. Just this week, a 22-year-old employee at a refugee support centre was stabbed to death by a teenaged resident, German Jews said they are worried about rising anti-Semitism brought on by refugees, and the city of Freiburg banned migrants from nightclubs due to women being drugged and assaulted in the bathrooms.

Refugee minister John McCallum recently argued we'd be spared similar challenges because we're selective in who we bring here, whereas European countries have little choice. It's a good point. It's also worth pointing out that all of Canada's challenges involve government-sponsored refugees.

We've heard no such logistical problems from privately sponsored arrivals, who are here because they're connected with a support group that cares about them and is willing to invest time and resources into their integration.

There's a key takeaway from all of this. It's an obvious no-brainer, but it's hardly discussed at all: the best way to serve refugees is to not let them become refugees in the first place.

The whole reason we have a refugee crisis is because of instability in Syria and Iraq caused by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's war on his own people and ISIS' war on everyone.

None of them wanted to be in this position. Many deeply resent it.

The best we can do is help end the crisis. Yet here in Canada we're still planning to withdraw our CF-18s from the ISIS fight. Our jets provided aerial cover for Kurds and others on the ground to fight to reclaim their land.

The last war in Iraq should have taught us by now that the result isn't going to be a flourishing liberal democracy where everyone lives in peace. But the sectarian squabbles that used to define the region are preferable to the harsher havoc this time around.

Helping people return home to a less war-torn, more stable region is the genuine answer to the refugee crisis. Let's hope our government better embraces this idea. Until then, the logistical challenges in Canada and the social turmoil in Europe may sadly continue.

Sun Media reported Wednesday a
Toronto hotel is booting out long-term
tenants to make way for Syrian
refugees. The CBC reported this week
that "85 government-sponsored
refugees say they're not getting much
help, and would rather go back to
their refugee camps in Jordan and
Lebanon."

Canada's major cities have asked
the feds to slow down the flow of
arrivals.

We've clearly got a situation --
hardly anybody is happy with how
events are unfolding.

Luckily, Canada isn't dealing with
the more extreme refugee challenges
Europe faces. Just this week, a 22-
year-old employee at a refugee support
centre was stabbed to death by a
teenaged resident, German Jews said
they are worried about rising anti-
Semitism brought on by refugees, and
the city of Freiburg banned migrants
from nightclubs due to women being
drugged and assaulted in the
bathrooms.

Angela Merkel’s proposed burka ban is huge news not so much because of what it is but because of who’s saying it. She’s one of the last politician in Europe you’d expect to float the idea. It means these sorts of policy ideas are well on their way to becoming acceptable fodder in mainstream, centrist politics.